March 14, 2009

Times Union FINALLY Breaks Silence on NXIVM

Marc Parry, the soon-to-be-former Higher Education reporter for the TU, reports today that both Skidmore College and R.P.I. have passed on the opportunity to host events surrounding the Dalai Lama's April visit to the Capital Region, "according to Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman, a trustee of the Ethical Humanitarian Foundation."

Bronfman is one of the co-founders of the World Ethical Foundations Consortium (WEFC), the nonprofit organization that is hosting the Dalai Lama's visit to Albany as part of the group's inaugural celebration. Bronfman is also a member of NXIVM and a star pupil of Keith Raniere, the founder of the WEFC and NXIVM.

Bronfman believes Skidmore and RPI rebuffed organizers' attempts to
bring the Dalai Lama to their campuses because of negative publicity
about Nxivm. Some have characterized the group as cult-like. Nxivm has
rejected the description.

I broke the bizarre news that NXIVM is hosting the venerable Tibetan back in January, and the TU has reported on it since, too, but Perry's article is the first time that the TU has even mentioned the bit about NXIVM possibly being "cult-like."

In the TU's first report on the Dalai Lama's visit, written by Carol DeMare, NXIVM and the controversies surrounding Raniere were omitted. Raniere was cast, without question, as a scientist and philosopher, with no mention of his involvement in an alleged pyramid scheme in the 90s, his alleged use of an espionage firm to spy on his critics, or the girl who apparently killed herself after taking six months of his patented Rational Inquiry courses.

Why has the TU been silent on the criticism surrounding Raniere? Well, the WEFC has rented out the Times Union Center to hold its inaugural event, and that might pose a financial conflict of interests for the paper. But, more to the point, there appears to be a long-standing practice by the paper of using kid gloves when reporting on NXIVM. The last useful article that the paper let run about NXIVM was written by Dennis Yusko and it was published on Aug. 6, 2006. Since then, the paper has avoided the subject of Raniere and his group. Yusko appears to have been pulled off the NXIVM beat, and it even appears that the TU has pulled Yusko's articles about NXIVM from its online archives. (WRONG. When I searched the archives this afternoon, I got no results. Not because they aren't there, but because the site was timing out, and Google doesn't appear to crawl the TU's archives database. Yusko's articles are there.)

There are some obvious questions here: Does the TU have an official or unofficial policy of nonreporting when it comes to NXIVM? What sort of conversations has the paper had with NXIVM or representatives of the organization that might have influenced their reporting? Has NXIVM ever threatened to sue the paper? Why hasn't Dennis Yusko reported on NXIVM since the string of articles he produced up until 2006? Was he punished by his editors for writing about NXIVM? Are any members of the TU's editorial staff members of NXIVM?

I am looking at you, Rex . . .

UPDATE:

So, now that I have mastered the ability to search the TU's archives, I should address Horatio's below comment in more detail. I have compiled a list of the articles that Dennis Yusko reported between 2003 and 2006. To me, this list demonstrates an enthusiasm on Yusko's part to report on the unusual dealings of NXIVM, digging into their land deals, financial and legal dealings, as well as into the group's controversial training methods.

Yusko's August 2006 article, "Fear and tears after NXIVM class” is a disturbing read:

Math teacher Nellie Forst wanted to control her temper better so she could one day become a principal. So at the advice of her father, the 28-year-old Philadelphia resident drove to Nxivm in Colonie for a five-day seminar expecting enlightenment and career advice.

But by the first evening, Forst says she ran out of the personal development company's New Karner Road office and left the Capital Region in tears. . .

"I consider the 11 hours I spent at the place to be psychological rape. It left me a totally different person with all this fear I never had before," said Forst, who has a master's degree from Drexel University.

That was the kind of provocative reporting Yusko was doing on NXIVM, but after this damning story came out, Yusko only filed two more brief stories about NXIVM land deals and then that was it. Nothing more from Dennis.

Yusko and I were both reporting on NXIVM at that time and talking to many of the same sources. Yusko had the reputation for being consumed with NXIVM. According to one source, Yusko was convinced that it was the “best story he had ever gotten.” It involves the Bronfmans, celebrities, “crazy people, and it is colorful and exciting.” After his August 2006 article, Yusko stopped making calls to these sources that he had spent years cultivating, and he stopped reporting on NXIVM.

At that time and since, these same sources have told me that Yusko was pulled from the story by his editors.

Yusko's Times Union articles on NXIVM

July 29, 2003: Plans for human potential school raise concern

Aug. 8, 2003: Group sues its critics over claims it is a cult

Aug. 28, 2003: Group gathers both acolytes, doubters

Aug. 30, 2003: Lawsuit claims group was portrayed as a cult

Sept. 9, 2003: Ruling lets Web site critical of NXIVM stay online

Sept. 18, 2003: County planners say no to NXIVM

Sept. 28, 2003: New vision for mind in eye of the beholder

Dec 21, 2003: NXIVM cuts training school from plan

Feb 1, 2004: An Espian's brief life

April 23, 2004: Court upholds Nxivm ruling

Sept. 3, 2004: Nxivm hopes lawsuit will go to highest court

Aug. 25, 2005: Nxivm accuses Albany businessman of fraud

Sept. 13, 2005: Nxivm loses assets claim

Nov. 3, 2005: Ex-aide calls Nxivm 'extremely dangerous'

Aug. 6, 2006: Fear and tears after NXIVM class

Oct. 24, 2006: Board puts off Nxivm plan

Nov. 14, 2006: New tenant OK'd for Romano's

UPDATE #2:

I sent a few questions to Rex Smith, the editor of the Times Union, and got back a few strongly worded responses:

CH: Has NXIVM
ever threatened to sue the Times Union?

RS: Not to my
knowledge.

CH: What sort of conversations has the
paper had with NXIVM or representatives of the organization? Have they
influenced the paper's reporting?
RS: I had a meeting several years
ago with the second-ranking official of NXIVM, who complained that our
coverage wasn't fair. This isn't uncommon in my line of work; I'm sort of like
the adjustment window at Macy's. Before the meeting, I re-read all of our
coverage, then I listened to her, and I concluded that our work had been
fair and thorough. That's what I told her. I don't think she was convinced, nor
did she convince me that we had been unfair.I've also met more recently
with Clare Bronfman about the upcoming visit of the Dalai Lama, which she and
her sister are sponsoring. I don't know if she is considered a representative of
NXIVM, though she is clearly an advocate for the organization and a
financial backer of its programs. It's not unusual that people want to talk to
the editor when they're involved in what's going to be a big story in our
community.CH: Why hasn't Dennis Yusko
reported on NXIVM since the string of articles he produced between 2003 and
2006? RS: Dennis's beat is geographic. He
was covering Clifton Park during those years, and he picked up the NXIVM story
because the group was involved in a local land-use issue at the time. He
was moved to another beat at about the same time as the local controversy over
NXIVM abated when its application was withdrawn. We have reported fully and fairly on the controversy over
NXIVM.

CH: Was he pulled from the story?RS: Absolutely not.

CH: Was he punished by his editors for writing about
NXIVM?RS: Absolutely
not.

By the way, an editor today
showed me your Web posting questioning a possible "financial conflict of
interest" for the Times Union in that the Dalai Lama's event is being held at
the Times Union Center. Bad reporting, Chet: As anybody who has read stories
about the Times Union contract with the county knows, there is no financial
benefit to the Times Union from ticket sales at the venue bearing our name.

It's also damn
insulting to everybody who works in our newsroom for you to suggest that our integrity is for sale.

CH: Why
did Carol DeMare's original piece reporting on the Dalai Lama's visit to the
region not mention anything about Raniere's past, [or even address the obvious
concern that his critics would have with a group he founded (WEFC) hosting the
Dalai Lama?]RS: I think it would have been reasonable to mention some of the
background material in the original story, but even as strong a reporter as
Carol DeMare isn't immune to the occasional mistake. Nor are you and I, of
course.

Sorry that I insulted your entire newsroom, Rex, but no one's integrity is above question, especially when we are dealing with a group that is as litigious as NXIVM is and has the access it has to wealth. As one source close to NXIVM puts it, "many a prosecutor has been bought off or scared away by Raniere and the Bronfmans' money."

As far as NXIVM's recent newsworthiness: Last year, a NXIVM-affiliated group sponsored its second A Capella event at the Egg, which paid to host multiple college-aged A Capella groups for a weekend of concerts and "training." The training seemed to be variations on the teachings of Raniere's "Rational Inquiry," the basis of NXIVM. TV actresses Nicki Clyne, Alison Mack, and Kristin Kreuk were the weekend's emcees.

Also, members of NXIVM tried to launch a "Facebook-like" Web site last year that targeted, again, college kids. Again, Clyne, Mack, and Kreuk were the face of this endeavor. Clyne and Mack even hosted an ice-cream social in Troy to recruit people into this social networking site.

These tactics are not uncommon in groups similar to NXIVM, and there are no shortage of experts who will explain that, as I am sure you know.

Also, I wasn't implying that there was a possible connection between ticket sales at the Times Union Center and the TU. What I wondered—and I still do—is whether or not the editors who read DeMare's cotton-candy article decided it wouldn't be worth the bad publicity to report the real news story, and give readers a rundown of Raniere's questionable history.

I just don't buy that that oversight was a mistake. It looks more to me like a calculation.

Comments

I'm all for bring the shady gaggle of NXIVM'ers out into the open...if such a thing is possible...but I think you're going a bit off-target here. First of all, I'm sure you're aware the TU doesn't own the TU Center, no more than Pepsi owned it several years ago. Certainly, they have a stake in people coming to the arena and seeing that name. But would it be enough for them to whitewash an event?

What has clouded the issue is a particularly dubious reporter for the paper who has written some very outlandish articles for the paper as of late. Her most recent masterpiece was an article that assure readers accused terrorist Steve Raucci was NOT involved in a 10-year-old bombing in Clifton Park, in which the REAL bomber was pretty easily identified shortly after he killed himself. So I guess my point is don't mistake controversy for reporter incompetence.

Also, Yusko didn't get 'pulled' from the NXIVM 'beat' so to speak. Rather he's got his plate full with Saratoga coverage. And when a group is a shady as this one, it's not like they're dripping stories to begin with.

But what IS a story here –and an interesting one at that –is that NXIVM is trying their darnedest to whitewash their tarnished image. And they're sending legal teams out to confront those who don't conform with this image. I've thought about writing something myself, but who needs the fucking hassle.

By the by, Jim Odato did a very extensive piece mentioning the group in 2007. That was followed by a couple of mentions in October of that year and then a really bull-shit fluff piece about Barbara Bouchy in 2008.

Good points, Horatio, but I do wonder how any comment of the criticism surrounding NXIVM escaped the original piece that announced the Dalai Lama's visit and why it took two months for the paper to remind it's readers that NXIVM is to some "cult-like."
As far as Yusko, I imagine that he is busy, but no other reporter in the area was as plugged into NXIVM than he was at one point. The group might not be dripping with stories, but they have been out there. Yusko was producing multiple stories a year on the group before Aug. 2006, and then after that, nothing. Why? I would like to know whether or not it is because he stopped looking.
But you are right, Odato's report on the group's political spending is thorough.

The lawsuit against Ross was filed before Yusko stopped reporting on NXIVM. I don't think Yusko got nervous. He is a good reporter, and I don't believe he would be easily deterred by the threat of a lawsuit. Besides, according to Rick Ross, and as far as I know, NXIVM has never sued a publication.
And yeah, I am mentioned in United States District Court documents. http://tinyurl.com/cqlgkr:
"On or about July 4, 2006, Chet Hardin, a reporter for the Albany based weekly newspaper, Metroland, contacted Ross to discuss the story about NXIVM’s efforts to investigate him and to lure him onto a cruise ship.
Seemingly, Hardin had a copy of the Interfor Report on Ross, which was provided to him by O’Hara. It appears that O’Hara was also the source of the news story. . . During Hardin’s and Ross’ conversation, Hardin read excerpts of the Interfor Report, particularly passages that unveiled the investigation into Ross’ banking transactions.
On or about August 10, 2006, this story was published in Metroland."

Lefty Why don't you find our what happen to the blog Nano-Burgh from these Tech Valley times What's the Dalai Lama Gotten Himself Into? it was only up for a day or two around 2/5/2009 now it's gone...or what was really going on when the Forbes came out. Hey you forgot about the story in the Village voice "secret agent schmuck" Has anyone found Kristen Snyder yet maybe the Dalai Lama knows were she is